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Welcome to Mkusi Msingu, Kenya. The place of gold.
But save for the gold not much else here glitters.
PAUL IKUTWA Subsistence Mining Community Mkusi Msingu, Kenya.
Here were in a place called Mkusi Msingu.
We try our best because there are not enough jobs.
This is the only option we have to help our families, by mining. There is a shortage of jobs here in Kenya.
The economy is very low.
Here we remove stones to get the sand on the river bottom.
The stones prevent the shovel from getting sand.
We then take the sand to the riverbank to wash it.
The gold remains with the slide and most of the sand goes with the water.
The sand goes because it's lighter and gold is heavier.
So the gold stays while the sand is carried by the water.
I am going to sell the gold and buy fertilizer and seeds for planting...
It also pays for my childrens education and food to eat.
And our clothes and shoes as well.
Bring the gold sand.
We do this every day.
The most we get is two to three grams per day.
Your posing for the camera?
This one has some gold.
That's the ore right there.
It is more than half a century after mining commercially, The Rosterman Gold Mine Company ceased their
operations and sealed their mines.
There is now as the global economy crisis looms, a certain kind of gold rush among the locals.
A kind of insistance and persistance at digging the earth.
It is this insistance that has turned many away from looking into other ways of earning a living,
even though the ground yields no substantial amount of gold, anymore.
The mines have not only taken up space on their land, but in their minds as well.
How much do you think that is ?
Three grams....[ USD $ 60:00]
At the moment I have a labour force of 60 employees.
They all benefit from the ground.
Stone.
Ease of... wait.
Your cool?
Yeah.
Your done.
The first miner was a European named Everett.
I was not born by then, but i know he came here in 1933.
He was prospecting around here for 10 years.
Sometime later he died, but he was here for 10 years.
He then went to a place called shikoko, there.
He worked all by himself.
He was not assisted by a big group like mine.
At that time the pay was one shilling - 50 cents [ USD $ ]
30 Cents [ USD $ ] nothing.
We have just been... looking for the ore.
Other than the pitiable amounts of the ore mined, no much else here glitters.
I buy from those who are digging for the gold.
I then sell it to other traders.
Eventually it ends up in the hands of goldsmiths.
They produce rings, necklaces things like that.
The gold passes through a series of people before it goes in to the hands of the people from outside.
The gold is truly a blessing. You are right. It is a blessing
This is Stephen Digges reporting from Mkusi Msingu, Kakamega District, Kenya.